Putney Town Rowing Club

The first race of 2010 (that wasn’t cancelled due to poor weather) took place at the weekend, and we had good representation, and some notable success.

Well done to the girls – retaining the IM3 pennant for the 3rd year.

Pennant Winners - Women's IM3

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Pairs Head 2009 - Ants and Simo

Putney Town had a good turnout for the race that is for many the first significant race of the Head season.

The weather before the race had looked like truly epic head weather, with the wind whipping up the water and some predicting some involuntary swimming sessions. However, the tide turned and things calmed down a lot much to the relief of all the participants.

The club was well represented and had some good results:-

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Like an experiment in poor taste, Saturday was “Minging Kit” day at Putney Town and was followed by a party to welcome new members to the club.

Two mixed eights raced over the water outside the club dressed in kit that rated about 12 on the loudness scale. A small selection of the visual onslaught is below.

Mankini man

Men in pink

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Putney Town Men's Squad on Training Camp in Banyoles

The men’s squad at Putney Town is also kicking off the new season with an open squad meeting to be held on Wednesday 9th September in the club bar at 20:30. Please contact Mens Captain Peter Rossi menscaptain@putneytownrc.co.uk 07983 325 992 or just turn up on the night.

In 2008/09 the Senior Men’s rowing squad qualified a Thames Cup 8 at Henley for the third year running, and were competitive at IM1/2, including wins at Marlow, Kingston and Oxford City regattas. 13 of the last two Henley crews are back for 2009/10 and we have over a dozen boats suitable for the squad. Our goals for 2009/10 are for the 1st 8 to finish top 100 at HORR and to qualify two boats for Henley Royal.

Coaching for the Men’s squad is provided by James Davey and Andy Holmes MBE. The squad attended an overseas training camp in Banyoles and has access to excellent equipment, with recently purchased eights and fours.

In addition, we are always keen to recruit coxes and will provide full training for steering on the Tideway and club membership is also free for coxes.

More information about the mens squad, club facilities and location is available on this website.

IM3 4+ Prizegiving at Kingston Regatta 2009

Putney Town was in action at Kingston Regatta this weekend. The club was well represented both on the water and on the banks with the PTRC ‘choir’ doing their best to drown out the competition.

We had singles, doubles, fours, quads, and eights from both men’s and women’s squads with two lots of rowing novices getting their first taste of racing at a regatta after joining the beginners rowing course earlier in the year.

The men had an eight in the finals and managed a win in IM3 coxed fours, after three rounds of racing. Ian, rowing at bow, writes: -

We were down half a length or so for most of the race until we approached the enclosure and with the roar of both clubs supporters ringing in our ears, we dug deep, wound it up and managed to inch inch inch up on Twickenham to win by 3ft! Epic race!

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For the third year in a row, PTRC Mens squad qualified an 8 for the Thames Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. Unfortunately, another tough draw meant that the crew lost to eventual semi-finalists London RC ‘A’ in the first round. We are particularly proud of the achievement this year given the crew is IM3 with only 9 points and three of the crew are graduates of the PTRC beginners courses.

“The following crews have qualified for the Thames Challenge Cup” comes across the tannoy…

“Lea… London B… London C…”

We wait patiently for the alphabetical list to be announced.

“Maidstone… Molesey… Monmouth… Mortlake…”

How many clubs begin with M? When will we get to the P’s in the alphabet? Have we done enough to qualify?

“Putn…” and before the announcer has finished his words the crew is roaring with celebration and drowning out the announcer.

Another fabulous result for Putney Town!

The men’s squad were racing both days at Marlow Regatta this weekend and delivered some respectable performances and one win.

In the 2000m races on the Saturday, the 8+ got through to the semi-finals with a time of 6:12.96. Meanwhile, in the 1000m races on the Sunday, the 4+ went a step further and came home with a win beating worthy competition from from Twickenham RC and Marlow RC along the way.

Matt, who came over from Australia having been a keen surf rower in Sydney, joined Putney Town RC last August and rowed in the Men’s Head of the river race in the first VIII. He wrote about his experience of the head race and provided the photos in the album below: -

We have just had a week of awesome sunshine, the spring is here, the days are getting longer and the weather couldn’t have been better for the HORR, the biggest and last head race before the regatta season starts for the summer. It even felt like I was making progress with my tan!

I can’t tell you how much fun I had - the race was excellent, the crowds fantastic, the company brilliant and the social afterwards absolutely unreal. Joining Putney Town Rowing Club was quite clearly one of the best decisions I have made since coming to London.

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Two weeks on from the Women’s eights head race, it was the Men’s turn to complete the classic tideway course from Mortlake to Putney.

Blessed with weather not normally associated with the HoRR, two men’s crews were entered from Putney Town, with a third ‘old timers’ crew racing in the Vet’s Head on Sunday after losing out on to the entry lottery.

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